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A CHAPTER IK THE 

HISTORTo^CLEYELAND 



BY C.M.BURTON 



"F^ 'W^..''^r-^^ 



\ 



The Western Reserve Historical Society-. 



One day in the summer of 1894, I obtained information 
that at a certain house on the Canadian side of the Detroit 
river, at a place, styled by the owner "Strabane," there was 
a quantity of letters and documents in the possession of 
one of the old families. At the earliest practicable moment, 
I visited the place and hastily examined such papers as the 
possessor was willing to permit me to see. Within a few 
days thereafter I again visited him and obtained permission 
to take a few of the papers with me to copy. Among these 
papers I found the Indian deed referred to in the following 
pages, and feeling that it might be of interest to your society 
I wrote to your late president, Judge C. C. Baldwin, of my 
find. I received an immediate reply from Judge Baldwin, in 
which he stated that the existence of the deed had been 
suspected by him for many years, and that on one occasion 
he had gone to Montreal to see if he could find evidence of 
its existence, but that my letter had given him the first cer- 
tain knowledge of its contents. I continued my visits to my 
Canadian neighbor for some time, and finally succeeded in 
purchasing from him all of his documents, and they are now 
in my possession. When my purchase was consummated, I 
again wrote to Judge Baldwin and he came to Detroit to 
make a personal examination of such of the papers as per- 
tained to Cleveland. He was greatly pleased with what he 
saw, and at his request I prep^iirpcj thQ.follpwiqg^P^pe):, wb.ich. 



11. INTRODUCTORY. 

contains the substance of that portion of these documents. 
The papers I obtained, however, do not relate exclusively, 
nor even very largely, in proportion to the whole, to this 
subject. They are the correspondence of a man largely 
interested in business and political affairs, and relate to the 
entire northern part of Ohio, Vincennes, Detroit, Mackinac, 
Upper Canada, the first parliament at Niagara, the Canadian 
election at Detroit before Jay's Treaty and other matters, and 
in all respects constitute the most valuable set of private let- 
ters I have ever seen. There are between 3,000 and 4,000 of 
them, and they extend from 1760 to the date of the death of 
their collector, in 1818. There are letters from Vigo, at 
Vincennes, Arthur St. Clair, Jr., William and Angus Mcintosh, 
John Askin, Jr., Joseph Brant, Alexander Henry, Commodore 
Alexander Grant, John Anderson, nearly all of the Moravian 
preachers, Zeisberger, Heckenvelder, Senseman and others, 
Wm. Henry Harrison, Gov. Wm. Hull, Judge Augustus 
Brevoort Woodward, Major Ancrum, General England, 
Arent Schuyler DePeyster, Henry Bird, Isaac Todd, James 
and Andrew Magill, D. W. Smith, and many Indian deeds 
and other official documents. This collection is of so recent 
an acquisition that I have not yet had time to arrange and 
bind it, as I propose, but I have pretty thoroughly examined 
it. Regarding the portion incorporated in the annexed essay, 
I would say that, of course, I do not possess all the corre- 
spondence and papers written on that subject, but I hope 
that what I here produce will be added to by others who 
possess information on the same subject, until ultimately the 
entire transaction of this Indian purchase may be made a 
matter of written history, and that we may thus add a chap- 
ter to the story of Cleveland. 

Respectfully yours, 

C. M. BURTON. 



Detroit, February, 1895 



• F. 
.AMlhof. 



A CHAPTER 

IN THE 

HISTORY OF CLEVELAND. 



Detroit, until the commencement of the present century, 
was the most important of all the Western posts in that great 
tract of territory which is comprehended under the titles of 
New France and Louisiana, Canada, and later under the name 
of the North-West Territory. It was the most important 
place west of Montreal, west of the Alleghanies. Cadillac, 
its founder, foresaw its commercial importance in 1701, 
and although, before coming to settle here, he had been 
in command of Mackinac, he knew that Detroit would soon 
outstrip that place in trade and population, and wrote to 
Pontchartrain (Minister under Louis XIV), that Michillimack- 
inac (as Mackinac was then called), would be so completely 
deserted in a few years that the Jesuit priests there would 
have no one to bury them when they died, but that their 
bodies would be food for vultures and wolves. 

Cadillac and the succeeding commandants were empow- 
ered to sell and convey lands about the post of Detroit, and 
they made many transfers of farms and village lots. The 
number and extent of these transfers have never been fully 
determined. Indeed, it was supposed that there were only a 
very few made under French rule, but my own investigations 
have recently unearthed some seventy-live deeds made by 
Cadillac alone, and further searches now being made by me, 
will, I believe, disclose several hundred, and perhaps form a 
complete record from Cadillac's day till the English conquest 



4 A CHAPTER IN THE 

in 1760. These early deeds wefe recorded by the Royal 
Notary, and his records were either kept as his private 
property, or sent to the home government in Paris to be 
buried in the rapidly accumulating and unassorted mass 
in the Foreign Department or Department of Marine. 

When the British took possession of the country in 1760, 
the record of transfers was carried on in much the same man- 
ner as under French rule, except that the records were kept 
as the property of the public and not the private books of 
the notary. From 1760 until the formation of the County of 
Wayne in 1796, when the Western country was surrendered 
to the United States under the terms of Jay's treaty of 1794, 
these records in Detroit filled four or five volumes and were 
retained by the British when they retired from the post. A 
part of these records, but not all of them, were, a few years 
since, returned to Detroit and placed in the registry office, 
and of them I have a complete copy. 

In the early part of the present century, and about the 
time of the destruction of the village of Detroit by the fire of 
1805, the United States Commissioners on land claims opened 
an office in Detroit and recorded such evidences of title as 
the old French people brought for that purpose. There were 
six small volumes of these records, and some years ago I had 
an abstract made of them, but not a complete copy. The 
originals have disappeared, and I have so far been unable to 
get trace of them. These books contained the transactions, 
not only of Detroit, but of the surrounding country, including 
a large share of the Western Reserve, so called, and in that 
connection a few words respecting the Reserve may not be 
out of place. The Western Reserve has occupied a very 
peculiar situation in the political formation of the Old North- 
West and of Ohio. The charter of Connecticut was granted 
by Charles II., King of England, in 1662, and through it 
Connecticut claimed to have the right to possess, not only 
the present State of Connecticut, but a large portion of New 



HISTORY OF CLEVELAND. 5 

York and Pennsylvania, and she even maintained that her 
western boundary was the ocean, extending, as the charter 
reads, " From Narragansett Bay on the east, to the South 
Sea on the west part, with the islands thereto adjoining." 

In 1 781 New York released to the general government all 
the lands to which she had claim west of a meridian extending 
through the western extremity of Lake Ontario.* The wesf 
ern boundary line was surveyed in 1790 by Andrew Ellicott.-j- 

The western line of Pennsylvania, agreed to in 1779 was 
fixed in 1784 by the report of commissioners appointed to 
establish the boundary line between Virginia and Pennsyl- 
vania, and the line so fixed was confirmed by the cession of 
Connecticut in 1800. J This served also to determine the 
eastern boundary of Connecticut's western possessions, 
and when the United States called upon her to surrender 
those possessions, so that the government might make 
provisions for the payment of the Revolutionary War debt, 
and furnish homes for soldiers, Connecticut made the 
required transfer, reserving only that portion which is 
now termed The Western Reserve. This deed of cession 
is dated September 13, 1786. § Of the Reserve 500,000 
acres were set apart for the fire sufferers, intending by 
this designation to include those people, more particularly 
of New London, Norwalk, and Fairfield, Connecticut, who 
suffered from the depredations of the British during the 
Revolution, and the balance of the Reserve was disposed of 
to the Connecticut Land Co., for $1,200,000, or something 
more than 40 cents an acre. 

The jurisdiction of the Reserve remained vested in Con- 
necticut, and the formation of the Territory North- West of 
the Ohio River by the United States in 1787, could not 
change the right of Connecticut to govern the Reserve by 
her laws, nor could the appointment of Arthur St. Clair as 

*Boundaries of the United States, by Henry Gannett, United States Geological 
Survey, 18S5. Bulletin 13, page 72. 
tib. 75. 

+ib. 80, and Hinsdale's Old Northwest, page log. 
§See Appendix. 



b A CHAPTER IN THE 

Governor of the North-West Territory give him authority to 
control that portion of the new territory. Although the ques- 
tion of jurisdiction had never been raised, a hint that it might 
be, at any time, was thrown out by the introduction, by Mr. 
Livingston, on the 4th of January, 1796, in Congress, of a 
resolution for the appointment of a committee to investigate 
the title to these lands "lately claimed and sold by the State 
of Connecticut." Some influence was brought to bear upon 
Mr. Livingston, for a month later, and before any action had 
been taken by Congress, he withdrew the resolution with the 
explanation that the interests of individuals might suffer 
while the matter was pending before the House, and that 
under the circumstances he thought it better not to proceed 
with the resolution. Nearly three years after this, and on 
the last day of the year 1798, Uriah Tracy, senator from 
Connecticut, introduced a measure, which, after some alter- 
ations and a re-introduction in 1800, became a law in April 
of the latter year,* authorizing the President to transfer 
the legal title of the Reserve to the Governor of Connecticut, 
in order to confirm the title of the purchasers from the State, 
on condition that the State would relinquish all claim to 
jurisdiction over the Reserve to the United States. Thus 
for the first time, in the year 1800, the Western Reserve was 
a part and parcel of the Territory North-west of the Ohio 
River. 

Meanwhile, .however, another complication had arisen, 
for the proper investigation of which it will be necessary to 
retrace a few years of the time we have just passed over. At 
the close of the Revolutionary War, England was in posses- 
sion of Detroit, Mackinaw, and all the other Western posts, 
and she agreed to surrender these to our government upon 
the execution of the final treaty of peace in 1783. One obsta- 
cle after another was placed in the way of the final execution 
of this part of the treaty, and it was not until thirteen years 
had elapsed — not until 1796 — that these posts were finally 

♦This act is to be found in Annals of Congress for i8oo, page 1495. 



HISTORY OF CLEVELAND. 7 

surrendered to our government. Upon possession being 
taken by the American troops, Winthrop Sargent, Secretary 
of the North-West Territory under Arthur St. Clair, Gov- 
ernor, proceeded to Detroit, and on the 15th day of August, 
1796, organized the County of Wayne, which included all of 
the northern part of Ohio west of the Cuyahoga River, all of 
Michigan, and a vast extent of other territory. In the absence 
of the Governor from the Territory, the duties of that officer 
devolved upon the Secretary as acting governor, and it was 
in this capacity, as acting governor, that Mr. Sargent, on that 
August day in 1796, undertook to organize the County of 
Wayne. It happened, however, that on the day preceding 
(August 14, 1796), the Governor, who had for some time been 
absent from the Territory, passed from Pittsburg into the 
North-West Territory, and thus the proclamation of Sargent, 
as acting governor, was a nullity. This feature of the case, 
while fully understood at the time by both parties, and 
pointed out and commented on by the Governor at that time, 
was not insisted on by him as being an illegal act and has 
been allowed to stand until age has given it validity. 

To the student who puts himself back to the time of the 
happening of these events, it appears clearly, ist, that the 
Western Reserve was not a portion of the North-West Terri- 
tory until 1800, and 2nd, that the formation of the County of 
Wayne to include that portion of the Reserve west of the 
Cuyahoga River was invalid for two reasons, (i) because 
that land constituted a part of the Reserve and was not sub- 
ject to the government of the North-West Territory, and (2) 
because the person who undertook to form that county, Win- 
throp Sargent, was not such officer as he pretended to be 
(acting governor), as the Governor, Arthur St. Clair, was 
within the boundary lines of the North-West Territory on the 
day the county was formed. 

Overlooking these technical objections to the legality of 
the newly formed government, we find Detroit the county 



8 A CHAPTER IN THE 

seat, capital, and metropolis of this new county, which is 
larger in extent than the present States of Ohio and Michi- 
gan combined. Of this great county, Peter Audrain was 
appointed register, and he opened a set of books in which he 
recorded all the deeds and other documents that were brought 
to him. Mr. Audrain was not only register but he was also 
judge of the probate court, justice of the peace, general 
scrivener, an expert penman in both English and French, 
and his beautiful chirography, almost like print, abounds in 
the early records of our county. Here we find not only the 
deeds of Detroit and its immediate vicinity, but also of 
Michillimackinac, Kaskaskia, Vincennes, Sandusky, and apart 
of Cleveland. I say of Cleveland, for, although at this time no 
such place as Cleveland existed, there are here several transfers 
of land in the northern part of Ohio, and one, at least, covering 
a large part of the present city of Cleveland.* Many of these 
early deeds are from the Indians, for, notwithstanding that 
both the French and British government, and afterward the 
United States, refused to recognize in the Indians any right 
to convey their lands to individuals, the inhabitants at Detroit 
continually obtained deeds from them and maintained, so far 
as they could, that their red brethren had a good title to the 
lands they occupied, and the British government in a few 
instances held these Indian conveyances to be valid, where 
it was quite evident that the deed was made with the appro- 
bation of the entire Indian tribe that was in possession of 
the premises granted. During the Revolutionary War there 
were many such Indian grants made and recorded in Detroit, 
and towards the end of the war, about 1780, when it began to 
look pretty blue for old England, these grants began to 
multiply with great rapidity. Nearly every citizen of Detroit 
was the donee of some considerable tract given to him by 
the Indians for the love and affection they bore him. 

Some of these parcels were pretty large. Jonathan 
Shieffelien, the Indian agent, obtained a conveyance of seven 

*These Cleveland deeds pertain to the part of thecity on the left bank of the 
Cuyahoga only. 



HISTORY OF CLEVELAND. 9 

miles square (49 square miles) including the present city of 
Amherstburg, Canada, and at nearly the same time our com- 
mandant, Arent Schuyler DePeyster, got a donation of some 
five miles square on the River St. Clair. These grants were 
not recognized as valid by our government, but where the 
grantee was in actual possession of the soil and retained it 
until after Jay's Treaty took effect, the possession was recog- 
nized as creating in him a good title which our government 
confirmed. All of the lands given by the Indians were upon 
the large streams or on the great lakes. No lands were 
granted back in the country, and everything, except along the 
margin of the lakes and rivers, was as wild and devoid of 
evidences of white man's supremacy in 1796 as when LaSalle, 
Hennepin, Marquette, Dollier, and Dablon first visited the 
country. 

Various schemes were proposed and attempted to be 
carried out by residents of Detroit, Montreal, and the Eastern 
States, to obtain a valid title to great tracts of this wild, and 
apparently worthless, land. One scheme, which came near 
being a success, and which also came near proving one of the 
greatest scandals of our early Congressional history, was the 
attempt to purchase the entire lower peninsula of Michigan, 
consisting of about 20,000,000 acres, for the insignificant sum 
of half a million dollars. It was expected that the pur- 
chasers, after having paid the five hundred thousand dollars 
to the government, would themselves see to the removal of 
the Indians and would obtain a release of their claims. 
Members of Congress were approached on the subject and 
their influence solicited upon the basis of an interest in the 
venture, if it passed, but Mr. William Smith, a member from 
South Carolina, either from honesty or temerity, from his 
seat in Congress made the affair public, on the 28th of Decem- 
ber, 1795. An investigation followed, more for the purpose, 
probably, of determining the members innocent than of dis- 
covering any guilty parties. Two men, Randall and Whitney, 



lO A CHAPTER IN THE 

neither of them members of Congress, were imprisoned for a 
few days by order of the House, and the matter dropped, to be 
thought of again only when it was dug up for historical 
investigation. I examined this subject pretty thoroughly, and 
wrote up the results of my examination in the Inlander"^ in the 
spring of 1892, and I think the volume of the Inlander con- 
taining the article is in the library of your society. 

One of the Detroit men interested in this proposed pur- 
chase was John Askin, Sr., and, as we will have something 
further to say regarding Mr. Askin, a short sketch of his life, 
from materials furnished by his grandson, Alexander Henry 
Askin, may be of interest. John Askin, Sr., was born at 
Auchnacloy, a small place in the north of Ireland, in the year 
1739. He came to New York in 1758, and for some months was 
engaged in that city and in Albany keeping a "shop," as he 
termed it ; that is, in dealing in every sort of commodity for 
which he could find a purchaser. It is said that he was a 
volunteer in the British army at the first attempt to take 
Ticonderoga, and about this time fell in with Major Robert 
Rogers, whom Parkman considers as one of the most suc- 
cessful and intrepid leaders of the American scouts. Askin's 
tastes led him more to trade than war, and he subsequently 
formed a partnership with Rogers in trading at Albany. The 
venture was not a success, and Rogers, who had no real worth, 
except that he was a good scout, ran away, "went beyond 
seas," as his creditors said, and left the payment of the debts 
of the unfortunate venture on Askin's shoulders. Mr. Askin 
obtained an extension of time from his creditors and paid 
them in full. He went to Michillimackinac in 1764 and 
engaged in the Indian trade. He intended to make Detroit 
his home, but the breaking out of the Revolutionary War 
prevented his coming here to stay. He came to Detroit to 
reside permanently about 1780, and carried on trade of aU 
kinds on a large scale. When the Revolution came to an end, 
he could not bear the thought of becoming a citizen of the 

*A monthly magazine published by the students at the University of Michigan. 



HISTORY OF CLEVELAND. II 

new republic, and in order to retain his citizenship as a British 
subject he removed to the eastern side of the Detroit River. 
He did not remove, however, until long after the new govern- 
ment had taken actual possession of Detroit. He did not re- 
move until 1802, after he had been appointed village trustee of 
the town of Detroit by the Legislature which met at Chillicothe 
in 1802, and had refused to serve in that capacity. He fore- 
saw the great value that would one day come to the fertile 
lands of the Northwest, and attempted to obtain title to as 
much of this territory as possible. His attempt to buy the 
lower peninsula of Michigan, is only one of the many land 
schemes in which he had an interest. 

He purchased from the occupants and settlers in the 
vicinity of Detroit, on both sides of the river, thousands of 
acres in small detached parcels, and proved his rights before 
the land commissioners. He succeeded in maintaining his 
claim to some of these lands, but many of them he lost. In 
company with Major Ancrum, of Detroit, he purchased the 
interests of the Moravian Indians in their possessions at the 
River Huron of Lake Ste. Claire, and then obtained of the 
Chippewa Indians their claim, and set up title to twenty-four 
thousand acres of land at that spot. In company with John 
Askwith, John Dodemede, Patrick McNiff, William Forsith, 
Jr., Robert McNiff, and John Kinzie, he obtained the Indian 
title to nearly a million acres on the Miami River,* including 
the present city of Toledo and extending to, and including 
the Sandusky peninsula. But the scheme that most greatly 
interests us at the present time is the attempt of Mr. Askin 
and his partners to take and hold as their private property, 
not only a large part of the land covered by the present city 
of Cleveland, but nearly all the land situated along the south 
shore of Lake Erie, and extending nearly to Sandusky. His 
entire claims in the northern part of Ohio aggregated 5,294, 120 
acres, and some idea can be gained of the extent of the Terri- 
tory so claimed, by remembering that the entire Western 

♦This river is now called the Maumee. 



12 A CHAPTER IN THE 

Reserve does not contain 3,500,000 acres. A part of this 
land of Askin's is included in the Reserve. 

The parties in interest in the Cuyahoga Purchase, as this 
scheme was called, were John Askin, Sr., John Askin, Jr., 
merchants, Patrick McNiff, surveyor, John Askwith, notary 
public, Israel Ruland, silversmith, all of Detroit, and Alex- 
ander Henry, of Montreal, merchant. McNiff, Askwith, and 
Ruland were men of considerable local importance at Detroit. 
John Askin, Jr., lived in various places, as at Mackinac, St. 
Joseph, Detroit, and Amherstburg, engaged in trade and 
acting as an Indian interpreter; he was well educated and 
his letters to his father, many of which I have, are couched 
in an affectionate tone and written in the studied and beauti- 
ful chirography of the last century that makes their reading a 
pleasure. Alexander Henry was a prominent merchant of 
Montreal, and did not, at this time, wield less power in the fur 
markets of the world than did our own John Jacob Astor, and 
indeed in many of their fur-buying and market-manipulating 
schemes they were partners. He is better known to us, how- 
ever, as the author of "Henry's Travels" and as one of the 
very few persons who escaped from the general massacre at 
Michillimackinac, as is vividly pictured by Francis Parkman 
in his "Conspiracy of Pontiac. " There was subsequently 
admitted into this partnership John Dodemede and William 
Robertson, Askwith having died shortly after its formation. 

Very nearly a complete record of this transaction has 
recently fallen into my hands, and from these records and the 
ancient, weatherbeaten, and mouse-eaten letters and docu- 
ments that I have collected on the same subject, I am able to 
give the following details regarding this matter : 

Alexander Henry, John Askin, and John Askin, Jr., had 
been jointly interested in the purchase of other lands, in 
smaller tracts, from the Indians for some time, and they now 
associated the other partners with them in this enterprise, as 
they felt the need of their assistance. On the i8th of Jan- 



HISTORY OF CLEVELAND. 1 3 

uary, 1796, the parties above named, Henry, the two Askins, 
McNiff, Askwith, and Ruland, purchased from the Indians the 
tract which I have referred to, and obtained a deed signed by 
twenty-nine of their principal chiefs.* The land is described, 
according to the opinion of Alexander Hamilton, hereinafter 
referred to, as located in Upper Canada, although the date of 
the conveyance places the transaction an entire year after the 
signing of Jay's Treaty, and the grantees named in the 
deed certainly knew that their new purchase fell within the 
newly established lines of the United States. After having 
obtained their deed, the efforts of all parties were turned to 
maintaining their title, and getting it confirmed by our gov- 
ernment if possible. They evidently did not, at this time, 
know that Connecticut had or claimed any right in the 
premises, as there is very little reference to that State in their 
correspondence. 

The various Indian tribes of the north and west had been 
requested to meet Gen. Anthony Wayne (Mad Anthony), as 
the representative of the United States, at Greenville on the 
i6th of June, 1795, for the purpose of making a treaty of 
peace, and to this treaty meeting, Messrs. McNiff, Askwith, and 
Ruland were sent for the purpose of looking after this land, 
and in order to get the Indian grant accepted by the govern- 
ment if possible. If it should be found impossible to get 
the matter before the meeting in a favorable manner, then 
all parties were to attempt to get certain rights conceded by 
our government to the Indians, as the right of tribal owner- 
ship of the lands they occupied, the right of repelling further 
advances of the Americans on these tribal possessions, and 
the right of conveying these lands to whoever the tribes 
thought fit, upon receiving sufficient compensation. It ap- 
pears that the Indians from Detroit did not set off for Green- 
ville until about the first of July, and they were then accom- 
panied by John Askin, Jr., who understood their language 
perfectly, and whom they requested to accompany them in 
order to assist them in protecting their rights. 

*For copy of this deed, see Appendix. 



14 A CHAPTER IN THE 

The fatherly letter of instruction of the senior Askin, on 
the departure of his son, urged him to see that, by the pro- 
posed treaty, the Indians remained sole masters of their 
lands, with the right to dispose of them as they wished, and 
the right to confirm such sales as they have already made. 
"This," he says, ''will secure, in my opinion, a lasting 
peace between the Indians and the States, which I apprehend 
will never be the case should the States lay a claim to the 
Indian lands, or force them to a sale, for when what they 
get is expended, and their successors in want, they will prob- 
ably have recourse to violent means, though they should 
not succeed." It was thus the duty of the younger Askin, 
not only to look after the interest of the syndicate in the 
convention, but also to see that the Indians were not im- 
posed upon, either by the men representing the government, 
or others who might be attracted there by the prospect of 
plunder. 

It was from Detroit, as the centre of the intrigue, that 
the strings were pulled to set the figures in motion. McNiff, 
Ruland, and Askwith had been sent in advance to Fort 
Greenville, John Askin, Jr., had, later, been dispatched with 
the Indians, and now John Askin, Sr., urged Alexander 
Henry to hasten to Philadelphia, then the seat of the Federal 
Government, to obtain the confirmation of their deed from 
Congress, and he adds, ''I hope you have not lost any time 
to get there. If we should be so fortunate as to get the lands 
confirmed we will be once more on our legs, I mean myself. 
Indeed I have the greatest doubt in the world that the 
Americans and Indians, even jointly, can take these lands 
from us." 

The younger Askin had left Detroit on the 2nd of July 
with a detachment of chiefs of the Chippewa Indians. He 
reached Fort Defiance on the nth, where he received a cool 
reception from Major Thomas Hunt, who was there in charge. 
On the 19th they reached Fort Adams, on the 20th Fort 



HISTORY OF CLEVET,AND. I5 

Recovery, and the next day, July 21st, 1795, they arrived at 

Fort Greenville,* and found the various Indian tribes and the 
representatives of the United States already in session. 
General Wayne had intercepted some letters directed to 
Askin, and from his knowledge of their contents deemed 
Askin an unsafe person to be associated with the Indians at 
this particular time, and so ordered his arrest and confine- 
ment in Fort Jefferson,* and would not permit him to have 
intercourse with any one, either in person or by letter. He 
was kept in confinement until, at the special intercession of 
the Indians, he was set at liberty and dined with General 
Wayne on the 8th of August, but by this time the treaty was 
over and the Indians had dispersed for their homeward jour- 
ney. Askin's trip was an entire failure. He had not been 
permitted to take any part in the deliberations, and the object 
he had in accompanying the Indians is not mentioned in the 
official report of the proceedings of the treaty. 

The treaty of peace which was finally concluded between 
the United States and the Indians provided, among other 
things, that the eastern boundary line of the Indian lands 
should be the Cuyahoga River^f that all the lands east of that 
river should be the property of the General Government, to 
be disposed of as Congress might direct; that the Indians 
should retain the exclusive ownership and control of the 
lands west of that river (except certain military posts), and if 
the Indians wished to dispose of any of these lands they 
could sell them to the United States and to no other person. 

Meanwhile Henry proceeded to New York, where he 
received letters from his confederates showing that they had 
failed to accomplish anything at the Indian treaty. Feeling 
now in great doubt about the ultimate success of the enter- 
prise, he submitted the deeds to Alexander Hamilton for his 
inspection and opinion. Mr. Hamilton's opinion did not 

*Fort Greenville was built at the place still called Greenville, ninety-two miles west 
of Columbus. 

Fort Jefferson was five miles south of Greenville. 

Fort Recovery is in Darke county, and is the name of a modern village. 

Fort Defiance is in Defiance county, on the Maumee, now called Defiance. 

Fort Industry is site of present Toledo, 

tThe Cuyahoga was the line for only a limited distance. The line crossed the portage 
on which Akron stands and then took to the Southern waters. 



1 6 A CHAPTER IN THE 

tend to reassure him, as he declared the deed to be in- 
valid for several reasons : First, the premises were described 
as being situated in Upper Canada, and could not therefore 
be in the United States; second, it was a deed of gift, 
and the Indians could not alienate lands in that way; and 
thirdly, no lands could be purchased from the Indians except 
with leave of the President. Robert Morris was also con- 
sulted in the matter, but he declined to take an interest in it 
because the matter had not been brought before the treaty. 
Almost in despair lest their enterprise should turn to be a total 
failure, the confederates tried to keep the Indians in good 
nature so that they would not repudiate their deed. They 
opened a formal account with the Cuyahoga Purchase, where 
they entered the accounts of all the items for goods given to the 
Indians, and all other expenses. They held a council with 
the Indians on the 2nd of May, 1796, and harangued them on 
the subject of this purchase and on the great love which they 
bore to their red brothers, and, so far as the Indians them- 
selves went, it seemed as if the title would not be contested. 
New deeds were obtained for some of the lands, in order, if 
possible, to strengthen those already obtained. Whether it 
was required, it certainly was deemed necessary to obtain the 
signatures to these deeds when the Indians were sober. We 
find frequent references to this sobriety in the deeds, and 
when these new deeds were to be executed, which was on the 
30th of May, 1796, McNiff wrote the following note to Mr. 
Askin : 

"Sir: — The Little Otter, with other chiefs and warriors, 
twenty in number, are now at my house waiting for Mr. 
Ruland, in order to put the finishing hand to all their con- 
veyances. They are all perfectly sober, the chiefs request 
a little rum for themselves and young while waiting for 
Ruland. You will please send two bottles and charge it to 
the company's account, but not to the Cuyahoga." 

The Askins, Ruland, and Henry, were not the only per- 
sons who claimed to hold lands by these precarious Indian 
titles. The plan of purchasing from the Indians had been 



HISTORY OF CLEVELAND. 1 7 

going on for some time and there were many interested 
parties. President Washington was very industrious in cir- 
culating letters of advice among the Indians urging them not 
to make any more deeds to individuals. Every string that 
the purchasers could pull was pulled. Congress was 
petitioned, and was even attempted to be bribed. Not only 
were Alexander Hamilton and Robert Morris approached on 
the subject, but the matter was laid before the best legal 
minds of the country for their advice. Brockholst Living- 
ston, then of Elizabethtown, New Jersey, but one of the 
foremost lawyers of New York, wrote a long letter of advice 
on the subject suggesting: ist. That the owners, who 
claimed to be British subjects at the surrender of Detroit in 
1796, make application as British subjects through the 
British minister to the President. 2nd. That they apply to 
Congress for a confirmation of the title. 3rd. That they 
settle on the land and then submit the matter to a judicial 
decision before a court of the United States. The third plan 
Mr. Livingston thought would be the best, though attended 
with some risk to the settlers. "I think," he writes, "Con- 
gress had no right to say that the Indians shall grant no lands 
without their permission. They have acknowledged them as 
independent nations. They make treaties and settle boundary 
lines with them as such ; it is, therefore, interfering with 
their sovereignty to declare that they shall not grant their 
own lands." 

Acting under this advice John Askin, Jr., was sent to 
take actual possession of the tract, and he built or occupied a 
hut on the west side of the Cuyahoga River a little back of 
where it emptied into the lake.'^ Here young Askin resided 

*The writer is speaking of the family of James Kingsbury, an adventurer on his own 
account; it is the spring of 1797. 

" When the surveyors under Mr. Pease returned to their work in the spring, the 
family came with them to Cleveland, as their permanent home. On the west side of the 
river, at a point which cannot now be fixed with certainty, but probably near \yhere 
Centre and Main streets cross, there was a dilapidated house. The old settlers think it 
was erected by the French, but it was more probably done by the English, who were here 
soon after the peace of 1763. It was a better building than the French were in the habit 
of putting up in such remote places. It had been a comfortable and capacious log store- 
house. Very likely the French had built a cabin near the mouth of the river, which had 
disappeared." — Whittlesey's History of Cleveland, page 226. 

There is a letter in possession of the Western Reserve Historical Society from Alex- 
ander Henry to Oliver Phelps and Henry Champion, Directors of the Connecticut Land 
Co., dated April 1, 1797, giving notice to the Company of the claim of title by Askin and 
his partners, and stating that Mr. John Askin and his family now reside on this tract at 
the River Cuyahoga, in order to secure possession. 



lO A CHAPTER IN THE 

with his family for some time; Askwith died, as we have 
seen, leaving a badly encumbered estate, and other shares in 
the enterprise changed hands so that Ebenezer Allen, Isaac 
Todd and James McGill came to have interests. Henry 
refused to spend any more money to advance the project, and 
in December, 1798, Askin proposed to reimburse him for his 
outlay on his conveying his interest to other parties, but, 
desperate as the situation was, Askin advised him not to sell 
out, but to advance his portion of the expenses and take his 
chances with the others. The next year a new character 
appeared on the scene in the person of the Connecticut Land 
Company. The Connecticut Land Company were anxious to 
remove any question regarding their ownership of the Re- 
serve, which they were already surveying, dividing into lots, 
and placing on the market, and they wished to extinguish 
the Indian title, so that purchasers would feel secure from 
molestation, and so that the Indians might be removed from 
these lands. They appointed Samuel Huntington, after- 
wards the second Governor of Ohio, to go west and ascertain 
the most practicable method of attaining the ends sought for. 
I have been unable to find any evidence that Governor 
Huntington visited the Reserve earlier than 1801, but two 
years prior to that date he came to Detroit and attempted to 
see Mr. McNiff on this subject. It is very probable that he 
was not over anxious to see any of the parties to the syndi- 
cate, for, not being able to see McNiff, he wrote a letter to 
the elder Askin regretting that the short time at his disposal 
did not permit him to make a call, and stating that his object 
in visiting the West was to be able to point out to the Com- 
pany the best way to extinguish the Indian title. If Governor 
Huntington had been very anxious to see Mr. Askin, the 
visit would have taken but a few moments, as at this time 
Mr. Askin either lived within the city pickets, not more than 
five minutes walk from any side, or else he lived directly 
fronting the common on the east, a distance of three or four 



HISTORY OF CLEVELAND. IQ 

short blocks. It is more probable that the Governor's visit 
was among the Indians themselves, and that its object had 
been accomplished, and he was now on his return home and 
did not care to see Mr. Askin. 

Ebenezer Allen was more of a schemer than the others, 
and having removed sometime before this to the River 
Tranche, or Thames of the present day, he proposed, in 1800, 
that all parties convey the land to Capt. Joseph Brant, a 
chief of the Six Nations, and the most influential Indian in 
the North-West. Brant was to put them in possession of the 
tract, and give them security to reconvey the premises to 
them when the proper time came. A man by the name of 
Augustus Jones was the person who acted as go-between 
with Brant, and he succeeded in getting Brant to agree to 
meet the Indian chiefs at Detroit about the first of May, 1801, 
for the purpose of considering the matter. There is no doubt 
that Brant was a very skillful diplomat for an Indian, and 
he refused to commit himself to the project. The intention 
was that, if the sale to Brant was carried out, the share of 
McGill, Henry, and the two Askins would pass to Brant and 
his Indians and they would become partners with Allen and 
Ruland. This plan was a failure, and seems to have entirely 
discouraged all parties, for I find no other efforts made 
looking towards making an actual sale to the Land Company 
or any other negotiations had by the parties for several 
years. Their private correspondence during this period, 
which I have, makes no mention of these lands. The 
Connecticut Land Company were going forward with their 
surveys and selling their lands, but as yet the Indian claim 
to that part west of the Cuyahoga River had not been ex- 
tinguished. In September, 1804, William Dean proposed 
to the Fire Lands Co.'^ to obtain a release of the Indian title 
for $20,000, and his proposition was accepted. 

Of course these proceedings were entirely unknown to 
the Detroit parties, but the efforts of Dean to perform his 

*The full name of this company was The Proprietors of the Half Million Acres of 
Land lying south of Lake Erie called Sufferers' Land. 



20 A CHAPTER IN THE 

part of the contract soon became known to them, and early 
in the year 1805 the hopes of the proprietors were again 
raised by a circumstance which is best told by one of the 
letters of the senior Askin: "I now begin to hope that all 
the money I laid out in Indian lands is not lost. The United 
States has given to the people of New London the pre-emp- 
tion right of a large tract, say 500,000 acres, in consideration 
of what they suffered by fire in the late troubles. This tract 
I, jointly with several others, purchased of the Indians, and in 
which tract Mr. Todd and you (James McGill) hold an equal 
share with me. A Mr. Dean is arrived at Detroit some time 
ago, one of several commissioners employed by the inhabit- 
ants of New London to purchase the native right, but he 
finds that the Indians have sold it to me and others; he there- 
fore has told Mr. Brush that he will pay ten thousand dollars 
if we will get them, the Indians, to sign a deed to their com- 
pany and pay the expenses; this is not more than about two 
sols the acre, and as the government of the United States has 
nothing to do in this business without our concurrence and 
assistance, the inhabitants of New London will never be able 
to prevail on the Indians to sell to them a second time, for 
what with our own influence, joined with that of Captain 
McKee, we mean to prevent the Indian chiefs ever meeting 
them in council, unless they give us what's fair, and then at 
our expense (out of what we receive) we mean to make a 
large present and get the nation to whom the lands belong 
to agree to a transfer from us to the purchasers, or to give them 
a new grant. The lawyers say we now have an opportunity 
of getting something handsome, as the offer is between indi- 
vidual and individual and the United States cannot inter- 
fere." 

The reply to this letter urged Askin not to be too extrav. 
agant in his demands, "as that may prevent any arrangement, 
and it's better not to lose the opportunity of getting some- 
thing." Major Dean departed from Detroit without calling 



HISTORY OF CLEVELAND. 2l 

upon Mr. Askin, and the latter said he thought Mr. Dean had 
neither money nor letters of credit, and he even doubted 
whether he was one of the commissioners as he claimed to 
be; even the offer of a thousand dollars for a deed of surren- 
der would have been accepted by the proprietors. 

There was an attempt made to hold an Indian council and 
make a treaty at Cuyahoga in 1805, but Askin, with the aid of 
Capt. Alexander McKee, his son-in-law, an Indian interpre- 
ter, succeeded in prevailing on the most influential chiefs not 
to visit the treaty council, and the representatives of the 
Reserve were compelled to call a new council, to be held at 
Swan Creek, and to this the Indians agreed that Mr. Elijah 
Brush, a Detroit lawyer, and also a son-in-law of Mr. Askin, 
should go, nominally as the agent of the Indians, but in 
reality to look out for the interests of Cuyahoga Purchase. 

This treaty council was held on July 4, 1805, at Fort 
Industry (the present site of Toledo), and by its terms the 
Indians surrendered all title to lands within the Reserve. At 
the same time they made a formal transfer to the Connecticut 
Land Company, and to the Proprietors of the half million 
acres of land lying south of Lake Erie called Sufferers' 
Land, of all of the lands claimed by them, thus making a 
transfer of the lands they had formerly conveyed to Askin 
and his partners, and thus finally extinguishing their last 
hopes of obtaining anything from the Cuyahoga Purchase. 

The United States Commissioner on this occasion was 
Charles Jouett, a son-in-law of Dodemede, and the represen- 
tative of the Connecticut Land Co. was Henry Champion, 
while Isaac Mills represented the Fire Lands Co. In Askin's 
diary I find the following as the final entries regarding this 
matter: 

" Tuesday, June 18, 1805. Mr. Brush and Mr. Smith, the 
interpreter, came here and dined, consulted on the Indian 
matter. Received a letter and answered it, from Major 
Deane. 



22 A CHAPTER IN THE 

"Wednesday, June 19. John (his son) came from Maiden 
and went over the river (to Detroit) with Charles (another 
son) to meet the Little Otter. The Little Otter and many 
other chiefs assembled with Mr. Brush and Jonny at my 
house and held a council. They dined, I made them a pres- 
ent, and they went away. 

" Thursday, June 20. Went to Capt. McKee's to meet 
the Indians, and dined there. 

"Friday, June 21. Sent James (son) with papers and 
letters for Mr. Brush at Capt. McKee's; also Tom (a negro 
slave) to go to the foot of the rapids with Mr. Brush. Tom 
returned; also James. Mr. Brush got Capt. McKee's Harry 
to go with him and went with the Indian chiefs and Mr. 
Curry to Swan Creek. 

" Wednesday, July 3. James went over the river and 
came back at night and said that Mr. Curry had come from 
the council and told him that all was settled and that the 
land purchasers were to pay ^33,000. 

"Monday, July 8. Received a letter from Mr. Brush 
saying that he came home yesterday. 

" Saturday, July 13. Mr. Brush called and told me what 
he had done in the Cuyahoga Purchase and showed amount 
of expenses." 

Mr. Brush's report of the result of the treaty is short 
and pointed and a fitting finale to the entire transaction. It 
is as follows: 

"Detroit, 8 July, 1805. 
Dear Sir: — I arrived here last evening exhausted with fatigue from 

the disagreeable to Swan Creek, the particulars of which I 

have not time now to relate, but the first leisure moment I shall go over 
and see you. I have not, however, succeeded so well as I had reason some 
days before I left there to expect, owing entirely to the invincible opposi- 
tion I met with from Jouett, who behaved more like a savage than a 
Christian. I have, however, brought 600 dollars, which is all that could 
be had. I send Joe over on purpose to beg some celery plants from Mrs. 
Askin, as many as she can well spare, which I will set out this evening. 

Adieu, God bless you. 

E. Brush. 
John Askin, Esq." 

LofC. 




^^9 a:^. -^j ^'"^^ 






.^/^^ y^ .^^^A^-^- ^Z-- 






APPENDIX. 



DEED OF CESSION, CONNECTICUT TO THE 
UNITED STATES. 

"To all who shall see these presents, we, William Samuel 
Johnson and Jonathan Sturges, the underwritten delegates 
for the State of Connecticut, in the Congress of the United 
States, send greeting. Whereas the general assembly of the 
State of Connecticut, on the second Thursday of May, in the 
year of our Lord, 1786, passed an act in the words follow- 
ing, viz : 

' Be it enacted by the governor, council and representa- 
tives in general court assembled, and by the authority of the 
same, that the delegates of this state, or any two of them 
who shall be attending the Congress of the United States, be, 
and they are hereby directed, authorized and fully empowered 
in the name and behalf of this state to make, execute and 
deliver under their hands and seals, an ample deed of release 
and cession of all the right, title, interest, jurisdiction and 
claim of the State of Connecticut to certain western lands, 
beginning at the completion of the 41st degree of north lati- 
tude, 120 miles west of the western boundary line of the 
commonwealth of Pennsylvania, as now claimed by said com- 
monwealth, and from thence by a line to be drawn parallel to, 
and 120 miles west of the said west line of Pennsylvania, and 
to continue north until it comes to 42 degrees and 2 minutes 
north latitude, whereby all the right, title, interest, jurisdic- 
tion and claim of the State of Connecticut, to the lands lying 
west of the said line to be drawn as afore-mentioned, 120 
miles west of the western boundary line of the commonwealth 



24 APPENDIX. 

of Pennsylvania, as now claimed by said commonwealth, 
shall be included, released and ceded to the United States in 
Congress assembled, for the common use and benefit of the 
said States, Connecticut inclusive.' And whereas the said 
William Samuel Johnson and Jonathan Sturges, were, on 
the 2d Thursday of May, A. D., 1785, elected delegates to 
represent the State of Connecticut, according to the law of 
said State, in the Congress of the United States, for the 
term of one year from the first Monday of November, in the 
year 1785, which election remains in force, and the said Wil- 
liam Samuel Johnson and Jonathan Sturges are the lawful 
delegates of said State in the Congress of the United States. 
Now therefore, know ye, that we, the said William Samuel 
Johnson and Jonathan Sturges, by virtue of the power and 
authority to us committed by the said act of the general 
assembly of Connecticut, before recited, in the name, and for, 
and on behalf of the said State of Connecticut, do by these 
presents assign, transfer, quit claim, cede and convey to the 
United States of America, for their benefit, Connecticut in- 
clusive, all the right, title, interest, jurisdiction and claim 
which the said State of Connecticut hath, in and to the before- 
mentioned and described territory or tract of country, as the 
same is bounded and described in the said act of assembly, 
for the uses in the said recited act of assembly declared. 

In witness whereof, we have hereunto set our hands and 
seals, this 13th day of September, in the year of our Lord, 
1786, and in the sovereignty and independence of the United 
States of America, the nth. 

Wm. Sam. Johnson [l.s,] 
JoNA. Sturgis [l.s.] 

Signed, sealed and delivered "| 
in presence of | 

Charles Thomson, V 

Roger Alden, ] 

James Mathers. J 

This deed was accepted and enrolled, September 14, 
1786." 

Journal of Congress for 1786, vol. 4, page 698. 



APPENDIX 25 

This Indenture, made the Eighteenth day of January and 
in the year of our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and 
Ninety-Six, between John Askin, Esquire, William Robertson, 
Esquire, John Askin, Junior, Israel Ruland, John Dodemead, 
Patrick McNiff, all of Detroit, and Alexander Henry of Mon- 
treal, of the one part, and the Chiefs and leaders of the 
Ottawa, Chippewa and Messasague Nations of Indians of the 
other part, Witnesseth, that We, the said Chiefs and principal 
leaders of the said Nations of Indians, for ourselves and by 
and with the Consent and advice of the whole of our said 
Nations or Tribes, in consideration of the Sum of five Shillings, 
Halifax Currency, to us in hand paid by the said John Askin, 
Esquire, William Robertson, Esquire, John Askin, Junior, 
Israel Ruland, John Dodemead, Patrick McNiff and Alexan- 
der Henry (the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged), and 
for other good causes and considerations. Us, the said Chiefs 
and principal leaders of the said Nations or Tribes of Indians 
hereunto especially moving, have bargained and Sold, and by 
these presents do and each of us doth bargain and Sell unto 
the said John Askin, William Robertson, Isreal Ruland, John 
Askin, Junior, John Dodemead, Patrick McNiff and Alexander 
Henry, their Executors, Administrators and Assigns, all that 
Capital, Messuage, or certain Tract of Land Situated, lying 
and being on the Southerly shore of Lake Erie, and bounded 
as follows, to wit: Commencing at the entrance of the 
Cayahoga River into Lake Erie and thence running up the 
westerly bank of said river to the portage or Carrying place 
between that River and the Tuscarrawas branch of the Mus- 
kingum river; thence down that branch to the Crossing place 
above Fort Lawrence; thence Westerly on the division Line 
between the Indian Lands and the land given and granted by 
the different Indian Nations to the States of America, August, 
1795, such a distance untill it Intersect a line run due South 
from the Entrance of Sandusky Lake; thence due North on 
that Line to the Entrance of Sandusky Lake; thence Easterly 



26 APPENDIX. 

along the Southerly Shore of Lake Erie untill the Entrance of 
Cayahoga River, aforesaid, or place of commencement, be the 
distance, quantity of Miles or Acres, more or less; always 
reserving out of said Tract of land Six Miles Square at and near 
the Entrance of Huron River, which we formerly granted to 
Gabriel Ganeau, and three small farms granted to different 
persons on the Southerly side of Sandusky Lake, which said 
Tract of Land and every part thereof, together with all Mead- 
ows, Pastures, Feedings, Commons, Woods, Ways, Waters, 
Water Courses, Fishings, Mines, Minerals, Quarrys, Profits, 
Privileges, Easements, Commodities, Advantages, Emolu- 
ments, Hereditaments, and Appurtenances, whatsoever, to the 
said Capital or Messuage or Tract of Land belonging, or with 
the same used or enjoyed or accepted, reputed, taken or known 
as part, parcel or member thereof, or as belonging to the same 
or any part thereof. To Have and to hold the said Capital, 
Messuage or Tract of Land, here'iitaments and all and singular 
other the premises hereinbefore mentioned or Intended to be 
bargained and Sold, and every part and parcel thereof with 
their and every of their Rights, Members and appirtenances, 
unto the said John Askin, William Robertson, John Askin, 
Junior, Israel Ruland, John Dodemead, Patrick McNiff and 
Alexander Henry, their Executors, Administrators and assigns, 
from the day of the date of these presents — for and during 
and untill the full end and Term of Nine hundred and Ninety- 
Nine Years from the date hereof to be Completed and ended: 
They, the said John Askin, William Robertson, John Askin, 
Junior, Israel Ruland, John Dodemead, Patrick McNiff and 
Alexander Henry, Yeilding and paying us, the aforesaid 
Chiefs and principal leaders of the Indian Nations, Ottawas, 
Chippewas and Messasagues, aforesaid, the Yearly Rent of 
five Shillings, Halifax Currency, at the expiration of every 
Year, to be Computed from the date hereof, if the same shall 
be Lawfully demanded of them, their Heirs and assigns. To 
the Intent and purpose that by Virtue of these presents and of 



APPENDIX. 27 

the statute for Transferring uses into Possession, the said 
John Askin, William Robertson, John Askin, Junior, Israel 
Ruland, John Dodemead, Patrick McNiff and Alexander 
Henry, may be in actual possession of the premises, and be 
thereby enabled to receive and accept of a Grant and release 
of the freehold, reversion and Inheritance of the same prem- 
ises and of every part and parcel thereof to them, their heirs 
and assigns, to the uses and upon the trusts, thereof, to be 
declared by another Indenture Intended to bear date the day 
after the date hereof, or on some other future day: In Wit- 
ness whereof the said John Askin, William Robertson, John 
Askin, Junior, Israel Ruland, John Dodemead, Patrick 
McNiff and Alexander Henry, unto these presents their hands 
and Seals have Subscribed and set, and We the said Chiefs and 
principal leaders of the said Nations have also unto these 
presents set our Seals and the marks of our respective Tribes, 
the day and Year first above. 

In the presence of the Subscribing Notary and Witnesses, 
the chiefs and the principal leaders of the Ottawas, Chippe- 
was and Messasagues Nations of Indians, did to this Inden- 
ture set their Seals and the marks of their respective Tribes, 
and delivered the same as their act and Deed to the party 
Concerned, the same being first Read and fully Explained to 
them by a proper Interpreter, they, the said Chiefs, being 
then perfectly sober. 

A Sketch of the Land Specified and \ Maygoneayum 
described in this Indenture is drawn on \ Sakakquai 
the opposite page, which the said Chiefs I Nigauchiway 
acknowledge to be Just, and to which I Michiwasse 
they have also set their Seals and marks \ Waibijay 
of their respective Tribes as a farther f Caugeskoway and 
confirmation of their perfect knowledge \ Kekaumegoush and 
of the Intent and meaning of this Inden- I Assogua 
ture. / Nigonchiway 



28 



APPENDIX. 



John Askin 
William Robertson 
John Askin, Junior 
Israel Ruland 
John Dodemead 
P. McNifif 
John Askin for 
Alexander Henry. 



Sowewanee 

Sagemay 

Kakigemigo (or Little Otter) 

Kiwaigewain 

Assogoua 

Agowa 

Shakquan and 

Key sh ike and Waynouse 

John Metowon 

Waukesoue 

Achoeshickique 

Nawtewans 

Assogouie 

Satoundach 

Edachien 

Kishainene or God damn 

Achaeskichique 

Egawaynique 

Nebenaquam 

Nigouchiway 

Waybokeshik 

Mishaboskisagone 

Nautewain 

Shoukvvam and 

Wousakeshek 



F. D. Bellecour, 
Notaire. 
Alexis Maisonville. 
Bte. Sans Craint, Interprete. 
D. St. Cosme, | 
Temoit. \ 



Know all men by these presents, that we, the chiefs and 
principal leaders of the Ottawas, Chippewas and Messasagues 
Nations of Indians now at Detroit, for ourselves and by and 
with the consent and advice of the whole of our said nations 
or tribes, in consideration of the good will — and affection, 
which we and the whole of us, of the said nations have and 
bear to our friends, John Askin, Esquire, William Robertson, 
John Askin, Junior, Israel Ruiand, John Dodemead and 
Patrick McNiff, all of Detroit, and Alexander Henry of Mon- 
treal, as also for divers other good causes and considerations. 
Us, the said chiefs and the whole of our said nations here- 
unto especially moving, have given, granted, aliened, en- 
feoffed and confirmed, and by these presents do give, grant. 



APPENDIX. 29 

alien, enfeoff and confirm unto them, the said John Askin, 
William Robertson, John Askin, Junior, Isreal Ruland, John 
Dodemead, Patrick McNiff and Alexander Henry, their heirs 
and assigns, forever, all that capital, messuage or tract of 
land, situated, lying and being on the southerly side of Lake 
Erie, and bounded as follows, to wit: Commencing at the 
entrance of the Cayahoga River into Lake Erie, and running 
up the westerly bank of said river to the portage or carrying 
place between said river and the Inscarramas, branch of the 
Muskingum River; thence down said branch to the carrying 
or crossing place above Fort Lawrence; thence westerly on 
the division line between the Indian lands and the lands 
ceded by the different Indian nations to the States of 
America by the treaty of Fort Greenville in August, 1795, 
such a distance on that line until it intersects a line run due 
south from the entrance of Sandusky Lake; thence due north 
on that line to the entrance of Sandusky Lake; thence east- 
erly along the southern shore of Lake Erie until the entrance 
— Cayahoga River, or place of commencement, be the dis- 
tance or number of miles or quantity of acres more or less, 
always reserving out of the tract of land hereby and herein 
aliened and conveyed or intended to be aliened and con- 
veyed, a certain space or piece of land six miles square at 
and near the entrance of the River Huron, which piece of 
land, we, the said chiefs, did formerly grant to Gabriel 
Ganeau. Also three small farms granted on the southerly 
side of Sandusky Lake to different persons, should the same 
come within the limits of the tract of land hereby given, 
granted and conveyed, with all and singular the woods, ways, 
waters, water cources, fishings, privileges, profits, easements, 
commodities, advantages, emoluments, hereditaments and 
appurtenances whatsoever, unto the said capital, messuage 
or tract of land belonging or appertaining, or with the same 
used, or enjoyed, or accepted, reputed or known, as part, 
parcel or member thereof, or as belonging to the same or any 
part thereof, with all mines, minerals and quarries therein or 



30 APPENDIX. 

thereon contained. To have and to hold the said capital, 
messuage or tract of land, hereditaments and all and singular 
the premises hereinbefore mentioned, aliened and conveyed, 
or intended to be aliened and conveyed, and every part and 
parcel thereof, with their and every of their rights, members 
and appurtenances, unto the said John Askin, William Rob- 
ertson, John Askin, Junior, Israel Ruland, John Dodemead, 
Patrick McNiff, and Alexander Henry, their heirs and assigns, 
forever, to the only proper use and behoof of them, the said 
John Askin, William Robertson, John Askin, Junior, Israel 
Ruland, John Dodemead, Patrick McNiff and Alexander 
Henry, their heirs and assigns, forever. And we, the said 
chiefs, for ourselves and on behalf of the whole of our said 
nations, do covenant, promise and grant to and with the said 
John Askin, William Robertson, John Askin, Junior, Israel 
Ruland, John Dodemead, Patrick McNiff and Alexander 
Henry, their heirs and assigns, by these presents, that they 
the said John Askin, William Robertson, John Askin, Junior, 
Israel Ruland, John Dodemead, Patrick McNiff and Alexan- 
der Henry, their heirs and assigns, shall and lawfully may, 
from henceforth and forever after, peaceably and quietly 
have, hold, occupy, possess and enjoy, the said tract of land 
hereby given and granted or mentioned or intended to be 
given, with every part and parcel thereof, free, clear and 
discharged, or well and sufficiently saved, kept harmless and 
indemnified of, from and against all former and other gifts, 
grants, bargains, sales, jointures, feoffments, dowers, estates, 
entails, rents, rent-charges, arrearages of rents, statutes, 
judgements, recognizances, statutes merchant and of the 
staple extents and of, from and against all former and other 
titles, troubles, charges and incumbrances, whatsoever, had, 
done or suffered, or to be had, done or suffered, by Us, the 
said chiefs, or any one whatsoever of our said nations, our 
heirs, executors, administrators, or any other person or per- 
sons, whatsoever, lawfully claiming or to claim, by, from or 
under Us, or any. or either of us, or any of our said nations. 



APPENDIX. 31 

And by these presents do make this our deed and gift, irrev- 
ocable under any pretence, whatsoever, and have put them, 
the said John Askin, William Robertson, John Askin, Junior, 
Israel Ruland, John Dodemead, Patrick McNiff and Alexan- 
der Henry, in full possession and seisin of the premises, by 
delivering them a piece of said land. In witness whereof, 
we, the said chiefs, for ourselves and on behalf of the whole 
of our said nations, have unto these presents set our seals 
and the marks of our respective nations or tribes, at Detroit, 
the nineteenth day of January, in the year of our Lord, one 
thousand seven hundred and ninety-six. 



In the pres- 
ence of the 
s u b s c r ibing 
notary and wit- 
nesses, the 
chiefs and 
principal lead- 
ers of the Otta- 
was, Chip pe- 
was, and Mes- 
sasagues na- 
tions of I n- 
dians, d i d t o 
this indenture 
set their seals 
and the marks 
of their respec- 
tive tribes and 
delivere d t h e 
same as their 
act and deed 
to the party 
concerned, the 
same being 
first read and 
fully explained 
to them by a 
proper i n t er- 
preter, they, 
the said chiefs, 
being then per- 
fectly sober. 



Nigauckeway 



Michiwasse 



Waybijay 



Assogona 



Agona 



Achaikichique 



Agawaymgue 



Mishaboskisagone Osouwanu 
or Little Otter Endashien 



Kakeginigo, or Kenaigewain Keshainene, or 



Sakakquae 



Nateway, or 



Toundash 



Keyarvise 



Shoyuame and 



Shaumindocoan 



God Damn 



Saugemay 



Evasakishek 



Ockasonand 



Cawgeskowan and Nabenaguam Shayuagand 



Gebaumegous 



Cashake and 



Evanouse 



Wabekahek 



Nezaundqua 



Namtemans 



F. D. Bellecour, Notarie. 
Alexis Maisonville, 
Bte. Sans Crante, Interprete. 
D. St. Cosme, \ 
Temoint. \ 



1 RR.i.-.ii 



RR. 



